Castle Blast Review (MindWare)

PRICE CHECK

EDITOR'S REVIEW

OVERALL EDITOR'S RATING:

What It Is

Castle Blast is a strategic skill-and-action game for two to four players where players use the wrecking ball to destroy the wooden castle, save the princess, defeat the dragon, and take the treasure. The game comes with a game board, a wrecking ball, three character blocks, 26 castle blocks, 12 tokens, a die, and rules. You'll need to build the castle on the playing board before you start. There aren't step-by-step instructions for this, but it's pretty easy to figure it out just by looking at the included picture.

Players take turns rolling the die to determine the number of times they will swing the wrecking ball on their turn. If, after taking the indicated number of swings, the player has knocked the princess block, dragon block, and/or treasure block completely off the board, he or she collects the corresponding token. A player's turn ends after taking the rolled number of swings whether or not any character blocks have been cleared. The next player does not reset the board before rolling the die and swinging the wrecking ball.

Play continues until all three character blocks have been cleared from the board. At this point, unless one player has collected all three character tokens, reset the castle and resume play. The first player to collect a princess token, a dragon token, and a treasure chest token wins the game.

Is It Fun?

This game gets players thinking strategically as they plan the best position at which to launch the wrecking ball. You're not going to topple over every block or clear the character blocks on every swing, but that's all part of the gameplay. It's about getting kids to use trial and error and problem-solving skills for a more successful swing the next time. For kids who are especially interested in building things and knocking them down, Castle Blast will be a lot of fun to play.

Who It’s For

Castle Blast is for ages 5 and up.

What To Be Aware Of

The game includes additional variations of play, such as designing your own castle using the blocks or playing solo.